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Former CNN anchor-turned-YouTuber Jim Acosta hosted historian Heather Cox Richardson as she suggested that the same ideas that energized the UFC White House event motivated the lynchings of the 19th century.
She began by condemning the use of an honor guard at the Lincoln Memorial to present the fighters, suggesting, "I think Trump is deliberately perverting those things that Americans hold dear."
"He forced them to stand on those steps in honor of the UFC fighters coming down," Richardson said. "It was almost as if he was saying, 'I don't care what you hold sacred. I'm going to use all of it for myself.'"
"What you are watching Trump do right now is deliberately tear that apart, and he is doing so on the same cultural argument, of course, that people used to back the first Gilded Age," she argued. "That is these cultural wars that turn White Americans against marginalized people of color."
The UFC Freedom 250 fights take place on the South Lawn of the White House on June 15, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin - Pool/Getty Images)
"Right," Acosta agreed.
"That's the bottom line there," Richardson continued. "So, I mean, it's not really a stretch to say that the same impulse that created the UFC fight on the White House lawn is the impulse that really pushed lynching in the late 19th century against Black Americans overwhelmingly, but also against Italian-Americans in Louisiana, for example, or Mexican-Americans in the American West, or indigenous Americans in the American West."
"That idea somehow — a really fake idea, by the way — that America is a White nation and anybody who challenges that needs to be purged from the body politic," she concluded.
Jim Acosta was CNN’s White House correspondent during President Trump’s first administration and has since become a podcaster and YouTuber. (John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images)
White House spokesman Davis Ingle responded to Richardson's criticism by saying, "This was one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history, and President Trump hosting it at the White House is a testament to his vision to celebrate America’s monumental 250th anniversary. Anyone who finds a problem with that clearly suffers from a severe and incurable disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome."
Trump marked his 80th birthday Sunday night with a celebration on the South Lawn, where 14 fighters from around the world competed inside a wire-mesh cage during the UFC Freedom 250 spectacle.
The estimated 4,300 people in attendance, which included about 1,200 active-duty service members, greeted the president with loud cheers as the occasional "Happy Birthday" was shouted from the crowd. The $60 million event kicked off with the Marine Band’s performance of the national anthem, sung by country star Zac Brown, and was capped off with a flyover by the Navy’s Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and UFC President and CEO Dana White walk out of the White House onto the South Lawn for the UFC Freedom 250 fight on June 14, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital also contacted the UFC for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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Fox News’ Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.
Alexander Hall is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].
